PETALING JAYA, Sept 25 - PKR today slammed the Health Ministry's flip-flopping and late action in the China milk scandal.
"The initial statement by the Health Ministry was that baby formula sold in Malaysia "is safe" and that Malaysia does not import milk or milk-based products from China, only to later admit to the contrary is questionable," said its president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
In a press statement released today, the wife of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim compared the government's Sept 23 banning of milk and milk-based products from China to Singapore, where it had already published a list of banned items on Sept 19.
The scandal had made global headlines on Sept 15.
She also questioned how the Health Ministry had come up with a list of products that were safe: "The procedures on how they arrived at these conclusions - ie. if they were chemically tested - were not revealed."
Urging the Health Ministry to publish a list of all products which have been found to contain melamine and those that have been banned, Azizah said that its "tardiness, lack of transparency and downplaying of the hazards of melamine has caused the Rakyat to be overly-cautious and suspicious. As a result, many are completely abstaining from buying and consuming milk and milk-based products."
The former parliamentary opposition leader called on the government to take immediate steps to set up a food testing agency, along the lines of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in order to ensure that all consumable items imported into Malaysia are safe and of proper quality.
- TMI
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