“Adham Baba - worst health minister out of 500 ministers ...”

Malaysiakini:

Twitterjaya abuzz over health minister's '500 countries' remark

CORONAVIRUS | Less than a month after his “warm water” gaffe, new Health Minister Dr Adham Baba has tickled Twitterjaya’s funny bones once more with his comment that there are over “500 countries” in the world.

Adham made the claim during an online video call yesterday in which he claimed to have participated in a teleconference “with over 500 other countries” and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The incident occurred during a live telecast of his conference call with Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on measures being taken to contain the Covid-19 outbreak.

“I had a live teleconference with WHO (and) 500 countries.

“Then I had a teleconference with China’s and Singapore’s health ministers, a live video (call) with Asean ministers, (South) Korea, Japan, China and the prime minister.

“I am lucky to be able to communicate with the global community on Covid-19 and am confident social media can help us. My tag line is we (will) win,” he said in the video.

For the record, there are just over 190 listed countries in the world currently, depending on the source of reference.

It did not take long for Twitterjaya to react to the claim. As of this afternoon, the terms “Adham Baba”, “Health Minister” and the hashtags #500negara (#500 countries) were trending on Twitter in Malaysia.

“It’s a good thing (Health Ministry director-general) Dr Noor Hisham (Abdullah) gives the press conference. If you rely on Dr Adham, gone are the facts,” Twitter user @shahriezalsalim said, referring to the daily press conference given by the ministry to update on the status and number of Covid-19 cases in the country.

“Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. Adham Baba and the 500 Countries,” quipped another user AiraPut3ri.

Meanwhile, Local comedian and medical doctor Dr Jason Leong said “Adham Baba is the worst health minister out of the other 500 ministers we've had”.

Opposition lawmaker Fahmi Fadzil also got in on the actions, with the Lembah Pantai MP tweeting: “Salam 500 negara (500 countries greetings).”

The debacle comes barely a month since the minister faced some heat after spreading misinformation by suggesting that drinking warm water would prevent Covid-19 infection.

During a live TV screening of an interview, Adham said the virus behind the Covid-19 outbreak “doesn’t like high temperatures” and advocated drinking warm water as means of prevention.

However, several politicians, including former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, came to Adham’s defense.

Najib took to Facebook to state that even the best speakers can sometimes misspeak.

“…Sometimes, verbal slips do happen. Even the best speakers have made mistakes.

“Verbal slips are still okay. Can still be forgiven. But what you can’t forgive are ministers simply main hentam (making claims) on national policies,” he said, uploading with his posts videos featuring Port Dickson MP Anwar Ibrahim and former finance minister Lim Guan Eng making such mistakes.

In the video, Anwar can be heard saying “January 50” while Lim once issued a statement criticising “SST 10 percent”, in reference to an admission by the former finance minister over a mistake in relation to the initial 10 percent sales and services tax (SST) imposed on some basic seafood items.

Najib had at the time accused Lim of making things up as the latter was confused by the classification of the wet foods.