Parti Keadilan Rakyat's (PKR) Selangor Youth wing today submitted a memorandum to the Health Ministry urging it to allow jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim to seek treatment abroad for his worsening slip disc condition.

Its chief Mohd Fauzi Yusuf and eight Youth executive members submitted the memorandum to a representative of Deputy Health Minister Dr Abdul Latif Ahmad.

Their attempts to meet Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek in order to hand over the memorandum personally to him proved futile.

"The official promised to forward our plight to the minister himself. We know that our chances for the health minister to react positively to our memorandum is very remote but we have no choice but to try to the best of our ability.

"The minister can play an effective role to ensure that Anwar gets the treatment of his choice. We can only hope that our memorandum will guide him to act with conscience," said Mohd Fauzi.

Anwar has been warded at Hospital Kuala Lumpur since July 12 after his health deteriorated. The 57-year-old politician has expressed reservations of undergoing a surgery locally.

The former deputy premier is currently serving a nine-year jail sentence for a sodomy offence which he is appealing against.

In the two-page memorandum, the Youth wing said Anwar's request to undergo an endoscopic surgery in Germany was justified as it is recognised as the "safest procedure" by medical experts.

"His choice of doctor, Dr Thomas Hoogland, is also justified as the latter has successfully performed 8,000 surgeries," read the memorandum.

Lackadaisical attitude

Meanwhile, the wing's information chief Faisal Mustafa expressed disappointment with the treatment the group received when submitting the memorandum

"We confirmed today's appointment with Chua's officer on Monday but when we came this morning we were told that the minister was not around to receive the memorandum. His aide, one Mr Teh, had refused to tell us of the minister's whereabouts," he said.

Their efforts to submit the memorandum to Chua's political secretary, known only as Tian, also failed as the latter claimed he was too busy.

"Only about 30 minutes later, did we manage to meet Latif's political secretary to officially submit the document," said Faisal.

Youth exco member S Manikavasagam said the whole episode showed the ministry's lackadaisical attitude towards the issue.

"It also seemed as if they were trying to run away from their responsibilities. Despite that we still hope that the ministry would seriously consider our plight. We also hope that the minister will reveal in detail about Anwar's health condition," he added.

He said the jailed politician's health problem must be dealt with from a humane and not political perspective.