SARS claims political casualty :: Namibia Internet Gateway cc ::

Articles: SARS claims political casualty

Posted by admin on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 01:24 AM

SARS has claimed its first political casualty here with the belated resignation of the physician-turned-politician who lost the public's confidence by mishandling the outbreak.
More than a year after SARS faded from the headlines, Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong announced yesterday he was acquiescing to widespread calls for his political scalp. In the wake of a legislative report that criticized Yeoh for offering false reassurances to a panicked public last March, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said he now realized his health secretary had to go. The report concluded Yeoh lacked "sufficient alertness" when SARS manifested itself across the border in Guangdong province last year. Tung had refused Yeoh's previous offers to step down. But the pressure grew this week after Hong Kong's main political parties asked for his resignation. The decision also comes against the backdrop of increased pressure on Tung's unelected, pro-Beijing government to show more political accountability to a frustrated public. Tung said yesterday he was giving "expression to the spirit of accountability and to try to relieve the resentment felt by the victims of SARS." Earlier this week, families of the dead protested about the government's mishandling of the outbreak. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome infected more than 1,700 people in Hong Kong last year and killed nearly 300, crippling Hong Kong's economy and spreading the disease around the world — notably to Toronto, where 44 people died. Much of the impetus for the first such massive protest, a year ago, was unhappiness at how the Tung administration had handled the SARS crisis. In his resignation letter, Yeoh wrote that the "SARS outbreak last year was an extremely painful experience for Hong Kong (and) the most heartbreaking and taxing episode in my professional career." But the chairman of Hong Kong's Hospital Authority, Leong Che-hung, who was also rebuked by the legislative report, decided not to resign yesterday. The Hospital Authority released a statement to the media last night saying he had offered to leave but was dissuaded by fellow board members, who "unanimously" rejected his resignation and threatened to quit en masse if he departed.

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