Anifah dismisses wild stories on Musa's health

Kimanis MP Anifah Aman takes a grave view of the resurgence of speculative stories in blogosphere raising questions anew over the health of his elder brother and Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman.

Anifah, also the Foreign Minister, was himself hospitalised recently with a bout of food poisoning but has since made a speedy recovery.

“These (bloggers) are the people who are associated with the Opposition and who forget that God exists,” said Anifah in a text message response last night.

“Imagine if they are the government? God forbid! I pray that God Almighty will forgive them for spreading this horrible lie.”

Anifah was responding to a blog, http://advocateviews.blogspot.com or Putt For Change which claimed in an originating posting last Friday that Musa was suffering from some sort of tumour in the brain and suggesting an imminent medical and political crisis.

Blogger and businessman Ronnie Klassen did not cite any named sources for his report and asked his readers among concerned Sabahans to pray for the chief minister’s health.

It is not certain whether the plea was meant to be sarcasm or in a cynical tone, coming at the tail end of the posting, but the blogger gets the benefit of the doubt in this instance.

The blog story “Musa inflicted with brain tumour?” has since been picked up by others in blogosphere.

'Just print what I said'

Asked whether his denial of the blogger’s report could be made public, Anifah replied: “Print what I said.”

Earlier, Anifah implied that his brother doesn’t deserve the bad press. He described brother Musa as one who is very close to his siblings and very much involved in doing public good.

“He set up an orphanage even before he became chief minister and has helped countless people without advertising (the fact),” said Anifah.

“Those who spread these cruel lies (about the tumour) may not have done anything for even animals, let alone human beings.”

It is not known whether Anifah himself has read the offending blog posting which mentions him in two paragraphs towards the end. He did not give any such indication in his three text messages but he seems to be very much aware of what was happening in the alternative media and the blogosphere.

Klassen, referring to his earlier June 10 posting “Musa whisked away to Singapore”, wrote in his latest entry: “And what was even more shocking was that the result of his (Musa’s) medical check-up suggested that he could be suffering from a serious ailment, a ‘brain tumour’!”

Musa was recently hospitalised at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore for several days. The hospital stay was attributed to stress and fatigue.

Sources for the post not indicated

Anifah himself then explained that the Singapore trip was a routine one for a medical check-up. Musa later told the local media upon his return from the republic that he was “in the pink of health” and pooh-poohed various stories making the rounds.

The use of the words “could be” in the blog posting suggests uncertainty and it is not clear whether this is a slip in the use of language. Klassen did not respond to a text message query on the matter.

The query: “You wrote that he COULD BE suffering from brain tumour. Why didn’t you write HE IS suffering fro brain tumour. You prefer to leave the certainty to come from the doctors.” Minutes earlier, Klassen had called to offer a hot tip on the subject for follow up.

Yet the entire tone of the blog elsewhere carries a definite air of being “the Gospel truth”. The sources for the post are not indicated either in any great detail but it would seem that these are implied, even if not expressed, in detailing how events may soon unfold.

There’s reference to an imminent trip to the US for further medical attention. Mention is made of a Kuala Lumpur-based neurosurgeon who clearly is not connected with the case in any manner.

Doctors in the know say that tumours are apparently common in the human body and generally benign (harmless) although there could also be malignant (cancerous) ones.