GOVERNMENT BUYS PRIVATE MEDICAL CENTRE

KOTA KINABALU (Malaysia), May 5 (Bernama) -- The government will buy a
private hospital, Sabah Medical Centre in East Malaysia state of Sabah, to help
overcome the health service problem here after the Queen Elizabeth Hospital's
main tower block was found to be unsafe for occupation.

Prime Minister Najib Razak, in announcing this Tuesday, said he wanted the
purchase process to be speeded up.

"We have approved the purchase of SMC by the Health Ministry at a very
reasonable price of about RM245 million and, with a little addition, we can make
improvements," he said at a meet-the-people session here, the Sabah state's
capital city, Tuesday.

Najib said the purchase of SMC was appropriate in view that it would take
time to build a new hospital.

Najib said it was the Barisan Nasional (National Front or BN) government's
intension to continue to work with the Sabah government under the leadership of
Chief Minister Musa Aman and to work as a team.

"The federal government will continue to help the Sabah government to
develop...ministers (federal) from Sabah will also help Sabah to develop," he
said.
His predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, had made a commitment of an
additional RM1 billion allocation to Sabah and he would keep that commitment, he
said, adding that RM500 million was already in the hands of the state
development officer and the remainder would be given in due time.

Najib also urged the leaders and elected representatives to go down to the
ground to listen to the people's problems without waiting to be invited so that
the problems could be resolved quickly and they could be close to the people.

"There's no need to wait for an invitation as an elected representative, no
need for the bunga manggar, no need for the red carpet, no need to wait for the
television camera crew, no need for protocol or officialdom," he said.

"There's a lot of difference in getting a briefing in an air-conditioned
room...if we go down to the ground and see with our own eyes, we get to know the
real problems of the people. I want this to be the style of BN leaders.

"If the prime minister can do it, why not the ministers. Can the elected
representatives do it?," he said, to ayes from those present.

Najib said he did not want to see BN leaders as leaders who were feared, but
as leaders who were loved and respected.

The BN government, he said, had a dream but it was not an unrealistic one,
unlike that of the opposition leaders who continued to hoodwink the people.

"The opposition dreamt of setting up a new government on Sept 16 (last
year), but it did not happen, so wait for December. December has passed,
Malaysia is still under the BN government.

"I hear that there's a new date, they want to take over in August. For how
long do the people of Malaysia want to be cheated by the opposition leaders who
have nothing better to do than to slander and play politics," Najib said.
-- BERNAMA